Year

Team

Problem and Vision

Value Proposition

Product/Service

Market

Business Model

Scale

2030

Our team is recognized as market leaders in the industry

We're a global leader in solving this problem

We're recognized as the top solution to this problem

Our products/services are recognized as the top in the industry

We have a clear line of sight to industry dominance

Our revenue has met or exceeded investors targets for multiple years

Unit economics are strong for multiple markets or customer segments

2029

We have an executive team that can lead the company through growth

We're beginning to have systems-level change in solving our problem

Customers are renewing or repurchasing without much sales effort

Our products/services are successfully handling dramatic growth

We have hard-to-beat partnerships for distribution, marketing, growth

We're rapidly growing each month and we've got a path to profitability

Growth in our customer base accelerating month-to-month

2028

Our management, product, & sales teams are ready for growth

We're beginning to have systems-level change in solving our problem

Customers are renewing or repurchasing without much sales effort

Our products/services are successfully handling dramatic growth.

We have hard-to-beat partnerships for distribution, marketing, growth

We're rapidly growing each month and we've got a path to profitability

Growth in our customer base accelerating month-to-month

2027

We have a clear strategy and understanding of sales

Our vision is proving attainable in a major market

The majority of our sales in our initial market our inbound

Our products/services are built for scale & new offerings are in progress

Our sales cycle meets or beats the industry standard

We've validated our business model. WE have strong unit economics

Our unit economics are positive in multiple markets

2026

We have a clear strategy and understanding of sales

Our vision is being realized with early adopters and gaining ground

We're selling beyond our initial target customers

Our core products/services are complete, in the market, and gathering feedback

Our suppliers & distributors see meaningful benefits from our success.

Our customer acquisition costs are going down & pricing is going up

We've cleared regulatory challenges and have a clear IP strategy

2025

We understand how our market operates & have strong industry contacts

We have evidence that we're solving our customers’ problem

Our initial target customers love the product and keep using it

Our products/services are almost ready for broad commercial distribution

Large partners are talking with us about distribution, marketing, etc.

Our actual revenues & costs support future positive unit economics

Our unit economics are tipping to positive in at least two markets

2024

Our team can build the product and understand the value chain

We can explain how our solution(s) will transform the industry

Customer feedback shows that our solution is better than others

Our team understands product management and associated costs

We have evidence that our total addressable market is over $1B

We have projected revenues and costs and have a strategy to hit them

Customers in multiple markets find value in our solution

Year

Team

Problem and Vision

Value Proposition

Product/Service

Market

Business Model

Scale

2023

Our team has personally experienced the problem

We can articulate why our vision offers a superior value proposition

We have evidence that customers will pay our target price

We've built a working prototype and have a product roadmap

Initial sales provide evidence that we can capture our target market

We can articulate the cost structure & unit economics in our industry

We have a clear strategy to scale to multiple markets

2022

We have 2+ co-founders with differentiated skill sets

We have a vision for how to solve the problem and can execute on it

Potential customers validate that our solution will solve a key point

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) developed

We understand applicable regulations & have a strategy for compliance.

Existing pricing and business models support our revenue model

We have evidence that multiple markets experience this problem

2021

We have 2+ co-founders with differentiated skill sets

We've identified a specific, important, and large problem

We have a hypothesis for how we will solve this problem

We have the ability to develop a low-fidelity prototype

We know our total addressable market size and target market share

We have an outline of a revenue model

We've identified multiple possible markets or customer segments

2020

Experienced Founder

The founder is passionate about the problem, or personally experienced the problem

Conducts early scientific or technical feasibility

Identifies resources, and skills needed to develop a low-fidelity prototype

Conducts customer discovery interview

Completes Business Model Canvas

Customer personas developed